Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, on Friday, December 30, 2022, said that Nigeria was on the brink of extinction before the emergence of his principal in 2015.
Why Adesina said this: The presidential aide was reacting to a Christmas message by Catholic cleric Matthew Kukah, who said Buhari is leaving Nigerians “far more vulnerable” than when he came.
What Adesina said: According to Adesina, Buhari “stabilised the land, crushed vermin, and is cleaning the polity”.
Writing in his weekly column, Adesina said “insurgents running riot across the length and breadth of the country” until Buhari became president.
“Where was the Bishop in 2015, when the polity had been completely shot to ribbons, and you couldn’t exactly say this was where Nigeria stood? Was there even a Nigeria, with insurgents running riot across the length and breadth of the country, bombing the land to kingdom come? The Bishop forgets, or is too filled with amnesia to remember.
“If Nigeria was vulnerable to death, destruction, destabilization, it was the situation before Buhari came, more than now. To a great deal, he has stabilized the land, crushed vermin, and is cleaning the polity.
“The job is not fully done, but is being done. Daily.
“Bishop Kukah has been accused many times of being a political priest, with propensity for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and great antipathy for the APC. That was possibly the prism from which he saw things, and, therefore, his erroneous conclusion of “more vulnerable,” Adesina wrote.
Who is Bishop Kukah?
Matthew Hassan Kukah is the current bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto. In December 2020, Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicastery on Integral Human Development.
He is known for his service to the church, community, nation, and humanity; and for his achievements as a true citizen who has used his priestly circumstances, boundless energy and prodigious intellect to promote the causes of justice and the common good.
He stands shoulders above many of his contemporaries in his many engagements in the last four decades. He has been a priest for close to 50 years, but his range of influence goes beyond the pulpit to include scholarship, public intellectualism, civil society advocacy and the courage to provide leadership, even in the most difficult situations. He is easily one of the best-known faces of the Catholic faith and priesthood in Nigeria.